Stencil and pad inker chase for a tag printing machine



IN VENTOR JOSEPH SEAR ST YLE I956 COLOR FIG. 8.

J. SEAR Filed June 23, 1965 STENCIL AND PAD INKER CHASE FOR A TAG PRINTING MACHINE Nov. 14, 1967 BY: I Wu ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,352,235 STENCIL AND PAD INKER CHASE FOR A TAG PRINTENG MACHINE Joseph Sear, 109 Mount Airy Road, Cromwell-Hudson, N.Y. 10520 Filed June 23, 1965, Ser. No. 466,282 1 Claim. (Cl. 101125) ABSTRACT OF THE DESCLOSURE This invention relates to tag printing machines, and to printing chases therefor of the kind disclosed in U.S. Patent No. 1,753,173 to Pope dated Apr. 1, 1930.

An object of the invention is to provide an improved and greatly simplified chase wherein an inked pad and a stencil are substituted for the printers type and the type-holding inserts of the said patent. A chase of the kind disclosed in the said patent is used in a tag printing machine such as is disclosed in U.S. Patent No. 1,837,450

to Laencher dated Dec. 22, 1931, and in U.S. Patent No. 1,986,655 to Weimont dated Jan. 1, 1935. The improved chase of the present invention is used on the same kind of tag printing machine as those disclosed in the Laencher and Weimont' patents. There are also modified forms of such machines in use but all use substantially the same form of chase as that of the Pope patent, and the present invention is also applicable to such modified machines.

The Pope chase requires the use of elongated printers types of special design, each type having one end thereof, in the usual manner, provided with a raised letter or symbol. To hold such types in printing position a number of special type-supporting inserts is required to be provided within the frame of the chase. In order to have the machine print the desired legend on a tag, great care must be exercised in inserting the elongated types in reverse order (from right to left) so that they will print in proper order to read from left to right. The individual types are long and thin and make for ditficult handling.

The users of such machines, require that the printed matter be changed frequently, since any particular legend or combination of legends is used only on a predetermined number of tags sufficient for a single lot of items, and the user may have hundreds or thousand of items a year, each lot of which requires a tag with a different legend. The changing of the type for a new lot of items is a nuisance, particularly since the job is done, not by printers but by unskilled workers who are unaccustomed to handling such types as well as to reading backwards, so that a great deal of time is consumed in changeovers.

Another object of the invention is therefore to provide in combination with a tag printing machine an improvement which entirely eliminates the troublesome and timeconsuming operations mentioned above so that a changeover from a previously used legend to a newly desired one may be performed easily and in a matter of a few minutes.

Another feature of the instant invention is the elimination of the inking pad which is used on present machines to ink the printers type in the chase once during every the guide ridges 60 in the opposed side walls 61 registerice cycle of the printing operation, that is, for each blank tag as it is advanced on to the printing platen. Such an inking pad is shown at 30 in FIGS. 2 and 5 of the Laencher patent; this pad is held in an inking head 31 pivoted upon a stud shaft 32 fast in a fixed inking bracket 33. The inking head 31 is operated to coordinate with the printing head by a link 34 pivoted at opposite ends to the inking head and printing head respectively by pivot pins 35 and 36 respectively (matter in quotes copied from the Laencher patent, page 1, column 2, lines 6773). The present invention also eliminates all of the mechanism for operating the inking pad since no such pad is used.

A further advantage of the invention is that it eliminates the need to carry and store a large and varied as sortment of printers type.

The above as well as additional objects and features of the invention are clarified in the following description wherein reference numerals refer to like-numbered parts in the accompanying drawing. It is to be noted that the drawing is intended primarily for the purpose of illustration and that it is therefore neither desired nor intended to limit the invention necessarily to any or all of the details shown or described except insofar as they may be deemed essential to the invention.

Referring briefly to the drawing, FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of the improved chase of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a top plan view of the improved chase.

FIG. 3 is a side elevational view of the chase of FIG. 2, with parts broken away and partly in section.

FIG. 4 is a bottom plan view of the improved chase.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken on the line 5-5 of FIG. 3.

FIG. 6 is a sectional view taken on the line 6-6 of FIG. 2.

FIG. 7 is a fragmentary side elevational view of a tag printing machine of the kind above-mentioned, showing the oscillating arm carrying the printing head in which the chase is mounted; this figure is a partial reproduction of FIG. 2 of the Laencher patent.

FIG. 8 is a fragmentary top plan view of a sheet of stencil paper bearing guide lines for cutting out stencilled strips for elective use on the improved chase.

FIG. 9 is a laid out view of a single stencilled strip.

' Referring in detail to the drawing, first to FIG. 7, the numeral 20 indicates a portion of the box-like frame of a tag printing machine such as is shown in FIG. 2 of the Laencher patent. As more fully set forth in the Laencher patent, and using the same reference numerals as Laencher, an oscillating arm 28 carries a printing head 26 in which is mounted a removable type chase 27, the latter being the chase of the Pope patent.

The only part of the Pope chase which the present invention uses is his rectangular frame 1 and the knurled knob or handle shown thereon; although the Pope patent does not show this handle as threaded into the front wall of his chase, the Pope chases on the market do have this feature as does also the improved chase of this invention. The equivalent of the Pope frame 1 and the knurled handle thereon are shown in the accompanying drawing at 10 and 13, respectively.

The frame 10 comprises the side walls 11 provided with external guide grooves 12, the rear wall 14, and the front wall 15. The frame 10 is inserted in the recess defined within the printing head 26, FIG. 7, by sliding it in, with ing in the grooves 12. The handle 13 is shown having a threaded stem or end 16 which screws into a complementary threaded hole in the wall 15.

Within the rectangular compartment enclosed by the walls of the frame 10, an inked pad 17 is frictionally mounted, or registers therein, with the lower surface thereof more or less nearly flush with the bottom edges of the frame walls. This pad may be of the common type usually provided as desk inking pads, upon which socalled rubber stamps are pressed to ink the stamps for imprinting on paper the legend borne by the stamp.

FIG. 8 shows a sheet of a standard kind of stencil paper which is adapted to be placed in a typewriter to have any desired legends or symbols stencilled therein. The sheet may be, and preferably is, provided with horizontal guide lines 18 defining the width of the desired stencilled strips 23 and vertical guide lines 19 defining the length thereof, so that any strip may be readily cut therefrom; or such guide lines may be in the form of tear lines. Additionally, vertical guide lines 21 are provided defining a square area 22 on which the desired legend is stencilled on a typewriter. It is thus obvious that it is an extremely simple matter to type up and cut or tear out a strip bearing the desired legend, in a minimum of time.

FIG. 9 shows a single stencilled strip 23 ready for mounting in position, and FIG. 4 shows the strip 50 mounted. To clarify a way of mounting and maintaining the area 22 in proper position, the area at one end of the strip is designated by the numeral 25 and that at the other end by the. numeral 24. To mount the reversed strip, after unscrewing the handle 13, the stencilled area 22 may be centered and positioned against the bottom surface of theinked pad 17. Then the end 24 is folded upward against thefront wall 15 of the frame and the handle 13 is screwed into the wall with the threaded end 16 piercing the strip. If desired, the strip portion 24 may have a hole prepunched therethrough, as shown in phantom at29 in FIG. 9, or merely a guide circle or a dot may be drawn on each strip to outline the spot through which the handle screw is to be passed. With such a hole or guide means provided in the strip, proper central positioning of the area 22 against the pad 17 is also simplified, for then the end24 may be first applied to the wall 15 with the hole 29 aligned with the threaded hole in the wall and the handle screwed home, whence the strip may be folded about the lower edge of the wall 15. The handle when screwed in thus firmly holds the end 24 of the strip.

As an example of a means for holding the other end 25 of the strip, an area on the back wall 14 of the frame 10, having preferably at least the width of the strip23, is coated with a layer of a pressure-sensitive adhesive material 50; such material is readily available on the market as a product of Dow-Corning Co. or Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Co. With the end 24 of the strip thus secured by the handle 13 and with the area 22 positioned against the pad 17, the other end 25 of the strip is folded upward and pressed against the coating 50. Thus the strip 23 is securely mounted on the frame 10. Since the portion 24 is not adhesively attached to the frame, to remove the strip for replacement is a simple matter as it is only necessary to unscrew the handle 13 and, grasping the end 24, to tear the strip from the coating 50.

Other ways or means of securing the strip in position are possible. For example, the strip itself may be provided with a coating of wettable glue or pressure-sensitive adhesive on the end 25, instead of applying the coating 50 to the wall 14. Or such adhesive material or glue may be applied on both the front and rear walls of the frame 10, thus avoiding dependence upon the handle 13 to secure one end of the strip. Or a glue or other adhesive may be applied to one or both ends of the strip instead of to the walls of the frame. In either of the latter two cases the stencil paper sheet of FIG. 8 may have such coatings applied thereon at or near the ends of the strips 23 which are outlined on the sheet. Where adhesive means is applied on both front and rear walls of the frame, or on both ends of the strips before cutting them from the sheet of FIG. 8, it would be advisable to provide an uncoated extension tab on one or both ends of the strip but preferably on the end which is secured to the wall 15, to enable grasping of the tab to facilitate tearing the strip off the frame. Since the various alternative ways or means just discussed, for securing the strip to the frame, are readily conceived, it is not believed necessary to illustrate them in the drawing.

At present there are many tag printing machines in use, which utilize the Pope chase with its printers types, and more are being marketed. Where'the advantages of the present invention are desired, it is a simple matter to convert the Pope chase to the improved chase of the present invention simply by knocking out the type-holding bars from the frame to leave flat interior wall surfaces defining the compartment into which the inked pad 17 is inserted. Furthermore, referring now to FIG. 2 of the Laencher patent, since his inking pad 30 is no longer used, it together with the arm 31 and the connecting link 34 are readily dismantled and discarded. Consequently, when such a machine is provided with the improved chase, less energy, whether mechanical or electrical, is required to operate the machine.

As to the stencil strips 23, they may be provided in dimensions either longer or wider, or both longer and wider, than the dimensions required to fit on the frame 10 in the manner illustrated or in the ways discussed above, so that after cutting or tearing them from the stencil sheet of FIG. 8 they may be trimmed to the desired size.

Itis to be noted that, although the Laencher and the Weimont patents do not specifically show it but as is obviousin such printing heads, the chase-receiving recess is open at the bottom and its top wall is flat so that the printers types are exposed at the bottom of the head and the top wall serves to prevent pushing in of the types upon impact with a blank tag. The said top wall similarly serves to prevent the instant inked pad 17 from being pushed inward upon making an imprint on a tag.

In operation, upon meeting a blank tag when the printing head comes down upon it, ink from-the pad 17 passes through the stencilled lettersor symbols and thus reproduces them on the tag. Thus the improved stencil-printing chase reproduces with perfect accuracy the legend stencilled thereon on each succeeding tag.

The invention having thus been described, what is claimed and desired to be secured by Letters Patent, is as follows:

In combination with a tag printing machine which includes an oscillating printing head provided with a chasereceiving recess wherein said recess extends upwardly into said head and is defined by a top wall and opposed mutually parallel depending side walls atright angles to said top wall, said side walls having opposed longitudinal ridges on the inner surfaces thereof, a chase consisting of a frame rectangular in cross-section complementary to said recess, said frame being composed of a front wall, a rear wall, and side walls thereby enclosing a compartment, said side walls of said frame having longitudinal grooves in the outer surfaces thereof complementary to said ridges, said frame being slidably mounted insaid recess with said ridges registering in said grooves, an inked'pad of substantially the dimensions of said compartment registering in said compartment, a strip of stencil paper bearing a stencilled legend in substantially the midportion thereof mounted on said frame with said midportion in contact with the bottom face of said pad, one end portion of said strip being turned upward against said rear wall of the frame and the other end portion of the strip being turned upward against said front wall of the frame, means for securing said one end portion of the strip to said rear wall of the frame comprising an adhesive, said front wall of the frame having a threaded hole therein spaced above the lower edge thereof, and means for securing said other end portion of the strip to said front wall of the frame comprising a screw complementary to said threaded hole extending through said strip and registering in said threaded hole.

(References on following page) References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS Pritchard 101114 Evans et a1. 101125 Laencher 101 291 5 Johnson 101125 Doerrler 101-125 X Collins 101125 McAneny 101125 Farrow.

Breverman 101-128.2

ROBERT E. PULFREY, Primary Examiner. I. R. FISHER, Assistant Examiner. 

